What became of the peace dividend?

[amerikat]

Remember that?

The end of the Regan era. Yankee know
how would change the world. Seems that it has failed in spades. All the scientists would switch focus from war machine to peace machine and a better world would hatch and solve the age old age problems of the world. The poor would be fed, the naked would be clothed, and we would move toward a better society and a better world.

My personal opinion is that religion shoehorned it's way into the mix..

Just my opinion....discuss.

[unblock]

1. clinton traded all that in for a blow job.

:sarcasm:

[amerikat]

2. ah the piece dividend

and then it was traded for a snow job.

[Erika]

3. W's theocratic/fascism came into the mix

Where, in their twisted minds, the poor should be shunned and the rich rewarded. Christianity in the reverse.

[dylan33]

4. It is in the Bank

We just have to find it and whose name or names it is in.

[amerikat]

6. Hey, welcome to DU

[jrandom421]

5. Actually...

Bush the first traded the peace dividend to bail out the Savings and Loan industry.

[amerikat]

7. you are correct.

and welcome to DU.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi jrandom421!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nevernose]

8. We smoked it, like it was crack.

Can I get another hit of "tax relief" please?

[amerikat]

9. No you can't

absolutely not. Taxes pay for the civilization we expect and deserve. Nuff said.

[punpirate]

10. In my various research on the subject...

... I have found that the defense firms greatly increased their lobbying efforts and campaign contributions beginning around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Your representatives voted for this money, and for the multiple wars that multiple Bush idiots have started, and they deserve the blame.

It's also interesting that the slogan, "we support our troops" took hold around the time of the first Gulf War, which coincidentally began as the Soviet Union was crumbling and people began to speak of a "peace dividend." I don't think that's a coincidence.

The religious component is recent. What has been happening, though, is that the public has been convinced that we have a new enemy, terror, which is just as ill-defined, nebulous and fear-making as the old enemy, communism.

But, we keep electing people who pay for the institutionalization of enemies, and spending huge amounts of our tax dollars to counter every imaginable threat, even those only imaginable by us.

Here's a little fact. From the acknowledged span of the Cold War, 1948-1991, we spent (in 2005 dollars) a few billion less than $16 trillion, about $363 billion per year. In the time following the "end" of the Cold War, we've spent (in 2005 dollars) a little over $5 trillion in regular appropriations and even more on war. All together, we've spent--after supposedly vanquishing the enemy of the peace, the Soviet Union--$370 billion per year.

The simple answer to the question of where did the "peace dividend" go is that your representatives spent it on an arms race with ourselves.

Cheers.

[amerikat]

11. I am amazed...........that our reps can legislate for us to pay(the repres

million's or even billion's for a 10 or 20k contribution to their campaign. I wonder if it is possible to have a randomly selected citizen to follow a rep. around. Just a thought.......a chaperon so to speak?

[punpirate]

12. Well, maybe a nice idea...

... but who pays that person to traipse around after their representative? And a randomly-selected person might never find what needs to be found.

It's a failure of the press, principally. The press hasn't done its job, not for a long, long time.

But, yeah, when it comes to keeping power, politicians are very cheaply priced. For those with the money to give, it's bargain basement days.

Cheers.

[elehhhhna]

13. HAL distributes it to its shareholders, quarterly.